More on Vasquez

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Pardon the quote sheet format, but Vasquez unfiltered doesn’t require very much expert analysis. He’s direct and gregarious, and that shows up on the floor and in interaction with folks like me.\

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On leadership:\

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“I feel like I’m the leader of the team with James [Gist] next to me and Bambale [Osby], especially James. I want to play the point guard, so either way I have to lead the team no matter what. Even if I didn’t want it, I have to. I’m ready to do it. I’m happy to be in this position right now. I think I have a pretty good chance of being one of the best players in the conference. At the same time I just want to win games. I don’t want to make it sound like I just want to play good and lose games. It’s about winning to me, it’s always gonna be about winning and making it to the tournament. We’ll see what happens.”

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On the impact of playing in the FIBA Americas tournament:\

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“I feel I can be at that level in a few years after I’m done with college. Who knows? It was helpful to me and it got my confidence better. I’m a pretty confident guy and just playing against those guys, it made me think if I really work hard, I can be able to show some stuff here and win some games here and take the school to a Final Four or something like that. It makes me motivate myself even more.”

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On exactly how his game got better:\

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“I didn’t take middle jumpers, middle-range jumpers at all last year. I just took it to the basket and shot a lot of 3s. I thought the difference was I wasn’t really sitting down low and waiting for the ball. It’s about putting a little work in and getting more confident. I thought I got a lot better from working out over the summer.”

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“I love to play defense and also got a little bit faster. I want to play against the best guys. I want to guard them and I want them to guard me so I can get better. That’s the point. That was the main thing, getting my own shot and creating my own shot and becoming the offensive guy that I need to become, not just scoring but also passing and grabbing rebounds and getting up and down the floor.”